Critical Digital Humanities is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to examining the digital world through critical, cultural, ethical, and socio-political lenses. The journal explores how digital technologies shape—and are shaped by—power relations, identity formations, knowledge systems, and global inequalities. Positioned at the intersection of humanities scholarship and digital innovation, Critical Digital Humanities publishes work that critically interrogates digital infrastructures, data cultures, algorithmic systems, digital labor, platform politics, and emerging technocultural practices.
The journal is committed to expanding the scope of digital humanities by foregrounding critique, theory, and reflexive methodologies. It encourages scholarship that challenges techno-solutionism, exposes colonial, extractive, and exclusionary logics embedded in digital systems, reimagines alternative digital futures, and amplifies historically marginalized and underrepresented voices. The journal also supports interdisciplinary dialogues that connect digital practices with broader humanities concerns, including ethics, social justice, environment, archives, memory, language, embodiment, affect, and cultural production.
Critical Digital Humanities welcomes original research articles, theoretical and conceptual interventions, methodological reflections, speculative and experimental essays, and multimodal forms of scholarship. The journal values feminist, decolonial, posthumanist, environmental, queer, disability, and Indigenous approaches, as well as innovative formats that push the boundaries of conventional academic publishing. By fostering global and cross-disciplinary conversations, the journal aims to serve as a platform for scholars, practitioners, artists, and activists who are critically rethinking what it means to study, design, and live with the digital in the twenty-first century.
The journal follows an open-access publishing model to ensure the widest possible dissemination of knowledge and does not charge readers for access to its content. Authors retain copyright to their work, which is published under a Creative Commons license unless otherwise stated. Critical Digital Humanities is committed to ethical publishing practices, transparency in peer review, and the protection of author and reviewer privacy. Details regarding archiving, indexing, sponsorship, and long-term digital preservation through recognized archival systems will be made available on the journal website as these partnerships are established.
Critical Digital Humanities follows a continuous publication model. Articles are published online immediately after acceptance and completion of the editorial process, ensuring timely dissemination of research.
The journal publishes one issue per year, with accepted articles added on a rolling basis to the current annual issue. This model allows for rapid publication while maintaining rigorous peer-review and editorial standards.
Critical Digital Humanities publishes interdisciplinary scholarship that critically examines digital technologies, cultures, and practices through humanities-based, theoretical, and reflexive approaches. The journal focuses on how digital systems intersect with power, ideology, identity, culture, and social relations, emphasizing critique over purely technical or instrumental perspectives.
The scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:
Critical Digital Humanities encourages global, cross-disciplinary, and socially engaged scholarship that challenges dominant techno-narratives and contributes to rethinking digital futures in more ethical, inclusive, and just ways.
Critical Digital Humanities publishes a diverse range of scholarly and public-facing content that reflects the interdisciplinary and critical orientation of the journal. The journal welcomes the following types of submissions:
Research Articles: Full-length, original research papers offering substantial theoretical, empirical, or critical contributions to digital humanities and related fields. (6,000–8,000 words; up to 6 figures/tables; APA 7th edition citation style)
Short Research Articles: Concise studies presenting focused arguments, case analyses, or preliminary findings with strong critical insight. (3,000–4,000 words; up to 4 figures/tables; APA 7th edition citation style)
Theoretical and Conceptual Essays: Works that advance or challenge existing theories, frameworks, and debates within critical digital humanities. (4,000–6,000 words; up to 3 figures/tables; APA 7th edition citation style)
Methodological Papers: Reflections on research design, digital methods, critical tools, and reflexive or experimental approaches. (4,000–6,000 words; up to 5 figures/tables; APA 7th edition citation style)
Research Briefs: Short, timely pieces highlighting emerging trends, datasets, projects, or early-stage research with critical relevance. (1,500–2,500 words; up to 2 figures/tables; APA 7th edition citation style)
Op-Eds and Critical Commentaries: Argument-driven essays engaging contemporary digital issues, policy debates, or public discourses from a humanities perspective. (1,200–2,000 words; no more than 1 figure/table if required; APA 7th edition citation style)
Reviews and Review Essays: Critical reviews of books, digital projects, platforms, tools, or exhibitions relevant to the field. (1,500–3,000 words; figures optional; APA 7th edition citation style)
Speculative and Experimental Writing: Creative, future-oriented, or unconventional forms of scholarly expression that push the boundaries of academic writing. (2,000–4,000 words; flexible figure limits; APA 7th edition citation style)
Multimodal and Practice-Based Submissions: Scholarship integrating text with images, audio, video, code, or interactive elements. (2,500–5,000 words or equivalent; figures/media as appropriate; APA 7th edition citation style)
Interviews and Dialogues: Conversations with scholars, practitioners, artists, or activists working at the intersections of digital culture and critical inquiry. (2,000–3,500 words; figures optional; APA 7th edition citation style)
All submissions are evaluated for their originality, critical rigor, relevance to the journal’s scope, and contribution to ongoing debates in critical digital humanities.
Critical Digital Humanities follows a rigorous, transparent, and ethical peer-review process to ensure the quality, originality, and scholarly integrity of all published work.
All submissions undergo an initial editorial screening to assess their relevance to the journal’s scope, originality, and basic scholarly standards. Manuscripts that do not meet these criteria may be desk-rejected at this stage. Submissions that pass the initial screening are assigned to an Associate Editor or Section Editor.
The journal follows a double-blind peer-review process, in which the identities of both authors and reviewers are kept confidential. Each manuscript is typically reviewed by two independent experts in the relevant field. Reviewers evaluate submissions based on originality, theoretical and methodological rigor, clarity of argument, ethical considerations, and contribution to critical digital humanities scholarship.
Based on the reviewers’ reports, the editorial decision may be one of the following: acceptance, minor revisions, major revisions, or rejection. Authors receiving revision requests are expected to address reviewer comments in a timely and constructive manner. Revised manuscripts may be sent for further review at the discretion of the editors.
The final decision on publication rests with the Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the editorial team. Critical Digital Humanities is committed to maintaining fairness, confidentiality, and academic integrity throughout the review process, and to ensuring that all submissions are evaluated solely on scholarly merit, without discrimination or conflict of interest.
To ensure transparency, ethical integrity, and scholarly accountability, Critical Digital Humanities requires authors to include the following disclosures in their submitted manuscripts, where applicable:
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: Authors must declare any financial, institutional, professional, or personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing the research or interpretation of findings. If no conflicts exist, authors should explicitly state that there are no conflicts of interest.
Funding and Sponsorship Disclosure: Authors must acknowledge all sources of financial support, grants, institutional funding, or sponsorship received for the research or publication. If the research did not receive any external funding, this should be clearly stated.
Author Contributions: For multi-authored manuscripts, authors are encouraged to provide a brief statement outlining each author’s contribution to the study (e.g., conceptualization, methodology, analysis, writing, review).
Ethical Approval Statement: Research involving human participants, interviews, surveys, digital ethnography, or use of personal data must include a statement indicating whether ethical approval was obtained from an appropriate review board or ethics committee, or explaining why such approval was not required.
Informed Consent Statement: Where applicable, authors must confirm that informed consent was obtained from participants, and that privacy, anonymity, and data protection standards were upheld.
Data Availability Statement: Authors should indicate whether the data supporting the findings are available, where they can be accessed, and under what conditions, or state if data sharing is restricted due to ethical or legal reasons.
Use of AI and Digital Tools: Authors must disclose the use of AI tools, generative technologies, or automated systems in the research or writing process, specifying the purpose and extent of their use.
Acknowledgements: Any individuals, communities, or institutions that contributed to the research but do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged.
Failure to provide required disclosures may delay the review or publication process. All disclosures should be included in a dedicated section of the manuscript prior to the references.
Critical Digital Humanities follows a transparent and affordable Article Processing Charge (APC) policy. A fee of USD 50 is applicable only for articles that are formally accepted for publication after the peer-review process. There are no submission or review fees.
All payment-related communication, including invoices and payment instructions, will be shared exclusively through our official email address: contact@wavehills.org. Authors are strongly advised not to trust or respond to any payment requests received from other email addresses. The journal will not be responsible for payments made through unauthorized or unofficial channels.
